Tuesday, October 18, 2016

Hello!

This blog is inactive. Please check out my author blog at Rosemary O'Brien or my blog about pocket parks for Pocket Parks Publishing. There are some exciting things coming in the future and I wouldn't want you to miss them! I may still post helpful items for my military family and veterans, but I am working on building my guide book business. A revision of BEST Pocket Parks of NYC is coming in the spring. I may also be covering a city overseas next year, so please stay tuned.

Friday, September 05, 2014

·I am hard working, often working into the wee
hours building my small business or working on writing assignments for other
small businesses and publications.

·I am creative in my approach to everything
whether it be creating the best brochure for a client or my own company, or
looking for the best way to get the word out about my projects through social
media, radio or someone who knows someone who knows someone else and is willing
to introduce me.

·I have written dozens of magazine articles,
website pages, speeches not to mention two novels and one non-fiction guide –
all published with royalties and everything.

·If I have a question, I speak to someone in my
network. If no one in my network has the particular expertise or information
for which I am looking, I am not afraid to reach out to the big guys even if I’ve
never met them. I meet them by reaching out and introducing myself and have met
some pretty cool people this way.

·I apply for everything, from grants that might
fit my projects to scholarships for conferences. I have met the best people at
conferences. If I find the material or the subject is something I already know
pretty well, I listen anyway. You never know what you can learn or whom you can
mentor if given the chance.

·I have experience as an administrative assistant
as well as a professional actress. Sometimes they work together pretty well!

·And lastly, I have directed and stage managed up
to 80 children in children’s theatre. If I can corral that type of situation
and make a meaningful project come to life on a stage, I guarantee I can coordinate
the printing of your report or gather material for your website.

Add all of this work experience
and skill to the fact that I have done much of it while staying home with my
children and moving homes where my retired Naval Officer husband’s job has
taken us for years. He has retired, we are settled now and I want to use all of
this experience in support of a good job with decent pay in a company that is
not too stodgy, yet not completely unorganized or it will not be around for me
to work. In short, I want to have fun while I work, but I still want to work
hard. Is it possible to find a technology company, a news organization or
communications department somewhere that can fulfill my dream of working for a
paycheck? It’s a simple dream.

If you are in charge of hiring for
such a company, one that will embrace my skills and experience while not
requiring me to make coffee all day or stock shelves, I would love to talk to
you. I am located in Southern Connecticut and am happy to work on site or
virtually, but I want to work and I would be an asset to any company that wants
a strong, helpful, vibrant and organized communications expert who can take
charge when necessary, yet assist when someone else is in charge. Please
contact me at writerobrien@gmail.com
with the word ‘GOOD JOB’ in the subject line. I promise you, you will not be
sorry.

Friday, August 29, 2014

Sometimes a newly-minted entrepreneur needs some advice
about their business. Let’s face it, there is only so much you can learn from
books, classes and seminars. When that happens to me, I reach out to the big
guys such as business moguls, other successful authors and even celebrities.
Why not? The worst they can do is say no or just ignore your email or call.

Since graduating from the EBV-F (Entrepeneurship Bootcamp
for Veterans’ Families) program last year, I have placed many calls and sent
many emails to those I believe may be able to help me get to where I want to go
by offering advice or constructive criticism. In fact, criticism can help you
avoid pitfalls that some other entrepreneur, namely one of these heavy-hitters,
has already gone through. Why take those missteps when your contact can warn
you about them? Below is a sample of some of the ‘Big Guys’ I have contacted.
Some have been people I have met through the EBV-F program, but some are just
people I contacted out of sheet admiration, knowing they would have some
excellent insights into my problem at hand.

I contacted Dave after being a fan of his PassPorter’s Walt
Disney World guides for many years. I used it the first time I planned a tip to
Walt Disney World and have used an updated edition for each of our five trips.
Dave was happy to schedule a call in the early days of forming my company and
provided me with valuable advice only a successful niche publisher could
bestow.

A keynote speaker and founder of a large company

I read that someone was going to be the keynote speaker of
the EBV National Conference which I would be attending, reached out to his
organization and asked to speak to someone in his organization to get their
opinion on selling my guide to a certain segment of the market as an entry
point. I expected to speak to a manager or someone in the organization, knowing
this gentleman is a busy executive and speaks around the country. The man
himself had his assistant set up a phone call and I was blessed with 30 minutes
of some of the most insightful business advice I could receive from a master
business person. (Forgive the secrecy, but he would be inundated with even more
calls if I gave up his name!)

I contacted Kelly when I was looking around for a place to
display my guide. She was putting together her first Women’s Travel Festival in
New York City and I was thinking of attending as a vendor. I never went, but I
did end up speaking to her on the telephone for a while. She was very helpful
as a woman niche publisher who was where I wanted to be in a few years. She
told me how she began her business, bestowing gems of advice as we spoke. Her
guide helps women who want to travel alone navigate such exotic places as
Thailand and as cosmopolitan as London. Her valuable advice saved me a lot of
time as I travel her path.

I called Rob after meeting the author of another Cheap
Bastard’s Guide at a journalism conference. I thought he was doing something
similar to what I was doing in that he hired out the writers for each title or
wrote the guides himself. When I met the other author, I had to find out how
Rob was structuring his business or if he was working for someone else. My call
to Rob ended up lasting almost an hour with him giving me his insight about how
he did it and what I should avoid in my quest to build my brand and publish my
titles.

These are but four of the dynamic people I have contacted to
get advice about my business. They were all very open and free with their
information and advice, leaving me with words of wisdom as I built my business,
Pocket Parks Publishing. I
figured if I was usually willing to help a deserving soul avoid some missteps,
why wouldn’t any of these people if they had the time, but that is the key.
Time. Make sure you focus your questions to one area when you finally get the
person on the phone or in a coffee shop. Their willingness to take time out of
their busy schedules to speak to you is out of the goodness of their heart. Be
respectful of their time, keep it as short and sweet as possible, and move on.
Afterward, send a handwritten note thanking them for speaking with you.

It’s not rocket science. We entrepreneurs have all been in
the same place at some point as we have started and grown our businesses. Reach
out to the masters of business to benefit from their wisdom. Remember: all they
can do is say no. With all you have to do to launch a business, making a cold
call should be easy.

Friday, August 22, 2014

Over the past few years, I have put aside this blog in the pursuit of other projects. I was raising children, writing for a variety of clients, and pursuing more education, but in the less formal spheres. I took a class on writing grants, graduated from Florida State's EBV-F program for military families pursuing businesses, attended both VWISE and Techstars Patriot Bootcamp, won a pitch contest, won a small grant, and FINALLY became a member of American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA). My new niche publishing business is up and running, Pocket Parks Publishing, and I am at work on the second guide in that series. I am also attending the upcoming Facebook Vets-In-Tech Hackathon next week and looking forward to presenting my idea for an app, an idea that went over pretty well at the Techstars conference. Wish me luck!

As you can imagine, I have learned many things throughout my journey and I would like to share them with you here on Writing Military Mom. While I will continue to post about opportunities for the military community, I also plan to write about entrepreneurship, what I have been learning throughout the last year or so, and how I'm moving forward with my plan to become a profitable small publisher.

Includes one room accommodation, three delicious meals daily and most activities. Not valid July, August or Holidays. Based on availability. Some restrictions may apply. Valid for one year. Random winner chosen Friday, May 10!

Monday, August 29, 2011

By Vanessa Van Petten, creator of RadicalParenting.com a parenting website written from the teen perspective to help parents understand them. She is also the author of the parenting book, “Do I Get My Allowance Before or After I’m Grounded?”

When I was 16 I thought it was my Dad’s goal in life to make me miserable. I was convinced that he had a
running list of all the ways he could embarrass me in front of my friends, trick me into doing more chores
or make my curfew earlier.

Our relationship would have continued to devolve until one day I saw my Dad reading a parenting book.
I flipped through it while my Dad was in the bathroom and realized a lot of the things he did that drove
me crazy he was getting right out of this book! I looked at the other parenting books on our shelves and
realized that they were all written by adults. I wondered—has anyone ever asked teens to write to their
parents?

I decided to build a website where teens could answer questions and write to parents called
RadicalParenting.com. I couldn’t believe how quickly it grew and how happy both teens were to get their
voices out and parents were to have a new outlet for connecting with their kids! We now have over 120
teen writers who give advice.

Teenagers, when given a neutral space LOVE talking to parents and often offer some of the best insight
because they are going through it themselves. We have also be so excited to help parents who feel like
they cannot reach their kids and teens.

I think teens and parents can work together to overcome their differences and learn to work best
together. We have just come out with our book: Do I Get My Allowance Before or After I’m Grounded and
it is a radical approach to parenting because it is written from the kid’s perspective! We would love for
you to check it out—if you are brave enough to see what kids have to say!

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

If you are interested in applying for the FINRA Foundation Military Spouse Fellowship Program, you’d better get on it! The deadline to apply for this exciting opportunity is April 15, 2011.

Now in its sixth year, this popular career and community enhancing grant once again offers 200 military spouses the opportunity to earn the Accredited Financial Counselor® (AFC®) designation.

Having a value of up to $1,170, the grant pays for the enrollment fee, study materials, webinar study sessions and two attempts at each examination for the two courses needed to earn the designation.

The coursework is completed via distance learning and is self-paced. In addition to the coursework, spouses are required to complete a practicum that may consist of up to 1000 hours, depending on one’s past work experience.

Spouses have up to three years to complete the program.

To date, nearly 1000 scholarships have been awarded and 255 military spouses have successfully completed the training and earned the AFC® credential. You can find them many of them working within military communities the world over as financial counselors at family readiness and support centers, credit counseling and tax centers, financial aid offices and credit unions.

If you think you have what it takes, visit www.militaryfamily.org to read up on the fine print.Note that preference is given to military spouses who:

have some college or a degree in business, finance, accounting or social sciences

currently volunteer or work in personal finance, banks, credit unions or counseling services

have volunteer experience within the military community

The 2011-2012 Fellowship is open to current or surviving spouses of active duty or retired Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, National Guard or Reserve service members.Spouses of U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration officials are also eligible to apply.

It is administrated in partnership with the Association for Financial Counseling and Planning Education® and the National Military Family Association (www.militaryfamily.org).To apply online for the fellowship, visit www.militaryfamily.org by the April 15th deadline.

Janet Farley is the author of The Military Spouse’s Guide to Complete Career Success (Impact Pubs) and the Military-to-Civilian Career Transition Guide (Jist, Inc.). Farley writes the JobTalk column in the Stars and Stripes newspapers and the Homefront column for the Military Officers Association of America. Farley also writes for Military OneSource, Bradley-Morris’ Civilian Job News and ClearanceJobs.Com. Follow her on Twitter at Mil2CivGuide for timely career transition tips.

About Me

I am a small publisher, author, freelance writer, military spouse, and the mother of two. As I go through my days working at home and caring for my family, I gain insight into many different things - good, bad, funny and just plain weird. Join me and my opinions, then leave your own.